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School of Education
YouTube

1. Worldwide YouTube Impact

What is YouTube?

As explained in the Wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube, YouTube is a global video sharing service that was created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005. In November 2006, Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. Today, YouTube operates as one of Google’s subsidiaries. A detailed history of YouTube is in the Wikipedia at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_YouTube.

What Does YouTube Do?

YouTube lets users upload, view, rate, share, and comment on videos. Unregistered users can watch videos, and registered users can upload videos and add videos to playlists and channels for other users to consume.

Important recent changes

In 2010, YouTube began streaming certain content. This began with streaming cricket matches and has grown to include several new services that debuted in 2015, including (1) YouTube Kids, with parental controls and restrictions on who can upload content; (2) YouTube Gaming for video gaming enthusiasts; and (3) YouTube Red, a paid service providing ad-free content and video downloading.

Societal Impact

YouTube has been the vehicle for delivering videos and fostering discussions that have led to the following societal changes:

The Future of YouTube

In an effort to establish itself in the emerging market for Internet TV, YouTube is reportedly building a streaming cable service called Unplugged that may see its debut in 2017.